The “Insane” Monk

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Contents by Buddhist Tradition xi
4. Contents by Region and Country xvii
5. Introduction 1
6. Looking Backward
7. Yangon Airport Tower Communications Worker 15
8. The “Insane” Monk 20
9. The Choices of a Priest on the Edge of Toyota City 23
10. A Witness to Genocide 25
11. A Monk between Worlds 28
12. A Buddhist Media Pioneer 30
13. Embracing Belief and Critique in an Academic Life 33
14. Knowing Buddha Organization 35
15. Educate, Agitate, Organize 38
16. Sinhala Buddhism and Alcohol Consumption 41
17. The Builder of Temporary Temples and Golden Corpses 43
18. A Rakhine Monk from Bangladesh 46
19. Rebuilding Temples after War 48
20. Scholar, Reformer, and Activist 50
21. A Thai Mural Painter in Singapore 53
22. Looking Forward: Social-Psychological Care in a Troubled World
23. Stabilizing the Rhythms of Life after the Tsunami 57
24. President of the Theravada Nuns’ Order of Nepal 62
25. The Rise of the “Clinical Religionist” 65
26. Activist Temple Wife 67
27. Modernizing Buddhist Proselytization in Hong Kong 70
28. Modern Miracles of a Female Buddhist Master 73
29. The Temple Is a Place of Solutions 75
30. Maitreya’s IT Guy 78
31. A Female Monk and the Hmong 81
32. The Globally Local Priest 83
33. Raising the Powerful Girl Child 86
34. Buddha Was Tharu 88
35. A Modern Taiwanese Educator 91
36. Inventor of a Buddhist Alphabet 94
37. Trading in the Buddhist Life for Drugs 97
38. Two Self-Sacrificing Bureaucrats 99
39. A Facebook Buddhist 102
40. A Daughter of Lamas, Yogis, and Shamans 105
41. Taiwan’s New Age Buddhist 107
42. A Modernist Monk with Chinese Characteristics 110
43. An Anticommunist Monk and Violence 112
44. Looking Inward: New Asceticism in Modern Buddhism
45. Art, Service, And A High-Rise Temple 115
46. State Secularism and the Tibetan Non-monastic Tradition 120
47. A Buddhist Spirit Medium 123
48. An Act of Merit 125
49. A Buddhist Lay Leader 128
50. A Modern-Day Burmese Weikza 130
51. Negotiating Religion and the State 133
52. Mother and Son and Meditation 135
53. Reconnecting with the Land (and the Gods) 137
54. A Buddha in the Making 140
55. The Singing Nun 143
56. The Only Buddhist in the Village 145
57. Stars for the Drowning 147
58. Alien Behavior 150
59. The Life and Times of a Shan Buddhist 152
60. Looking Outward: Local Buddhists Becoming Global Citizens
61. Teaching Buddhism as a Second Language 155
62. The Empowerment of Buddhist Women 160
63. A Buddhist Mickey Mouse 163
64. A Twenty-first Century Custodian 165
65. The Return of the Dutch 168
66. The Blogger Monk in Southern China 170
67. Carving Playful Buddhas 173
68. Prolific Writer, Cool Blogger 176
69. Collector of Magic, Esquire 178
70. A Sovereign Body beyond the Nation-State 181
71. Post-Monk Life in New Zealand 183
72. The First Theravada Bhikkhuni in Vietnam 185
73. Monk, Writer, Educator, and International Buddhist 188
74. On Being a “Human Being” 190
75. Thousand Hands, Thousand Eyes 193
76. Further Reading 197
77. Contributors 203
78. Index 211